About Anna Stuart

I wanted to be an author from the moment I could pick up a pen and was writing boarding-school novels by the age of nine. I made the early mistake of thinking I ought to get a ‘proper job’ and went into Factory Planning – a career that gave me some wonderful experiences, amazing friends and even a fantastic husband, but didn’t offer much creative scope. So when I stopped to have children I took the chance to start the ‘improper job’ of writing. During the baby years I wrote in the brief gaps provided by sleeps, playschools and obliging grandparents, publishing short stories and serials in all the women’s magazines.

A little plotting on holiday!

Me with The Beatles!

But my ultimate aim was to write longer fiction and several years ago I published a series of successful historical novels under the pseudonym Joanna Courtney. I will continue to publish under that name but am delighted, as Anna Stuart, to also be able to write contemporary fiction. Bonnie and Stan, a true to life romance set in both the present day and sixties Liverpool, will be released in early 2019 with a second novel to follow in 2020.

Introducing Joanna Courtney

As Joanna Courtney I have published a trilogy The Queens of the Conquest about the three women fighting to be queen of England in 1066. It seemed to me inherently wrong that all we knew about this momentous year was from the male side of the story and I set out to redress the balance. My novels tell the events from the viewpoints of Edith of Mercia, wife of King Harold; Elizaveta of Kiev, wife of Harald Hardrada; and Mathilda of Flanders, wife of William the eventual conqueror.

I am now writing a new series called Shakespeare's Queens which explores the real histories of three of the great bard's best female creations - Lady Macbeth, Ophelia and Cordelia. The first of these, Blood Queen, will be released for kindle in September 2018 and in paperback in July 2019.

I wanted to write contemporary novels under the new name of Anna Stuart so that readers knew clearly what they were getting but do find out more about my historical work by visiting my Joanna Courtney site.

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Bonnie and Stan will be published by Trapeze, part of Orion books. Launched in October 2016 and already the home of 9 Sunday Times top 10 bestsellers, Trapeze is on a mission to publish books that start conversations. Visit their fabulous twitter page for more.